Building resilience

^{Narrated by Jason Dempsey}

All of us are keenly aware of the rough ride ahead for advocates for the environment. With control of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives (tenuously), the Trump Administration has few guardrails to keep Trump from implementing Project 2025 and more. This will affect much more than just the environment.

It is tempting to simply withdraw into our jobs, relationships, and enjoyable activities and tune out the news entirely.

But if we don’t resist Trump, he will repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and gut the federal workforce enforcing the environmental protections on the books. And that’s just for the environment. He’s stated his intent to deport all undocumented residents and has a record of oppressing human rights.

To resist effectively and to advance action on climate change, immigration, human rights, or any other issue that we care about, we must be resilient. 

Resilience involves self-care, but with purpose. Focusing entirely on self-care cedes the ground to Trump.

So, let’s first talk about self-care. I will follow the excellent instructions by Tamara Staton, the Education and Resilience Coordinator for Citizens Climate Lobby. 

Self-care starts with recognizing anxiety. It can have manifestations that are emotional (feelings of despair, hopelessness, anger, fear, or disgust), cognitive (challenges in decision-making, negativity, loss of sense of purpose and energy), behavioral (difficulty with sleep or relaxation, reactivity, irritability, feeling withdrawn, panic attacks, eating disorders, or substance abuse), and physiological (muscle tension, headaches, backache, tiredness, high blood pressure, or suppressed immune system). 

If you recognize anxiety in yourself, in order to mitigate the causes rather than just the symptoms, you need to know its causes. For climate change, anxiety arises from a combination of awareness of the impacts of climate change on current and future generations, the urgency of the need for climate solutions, the complexity and scale of the solutions, the slow pace of progress in embracing climate solutions at the scale that is needed, and the widespread apathy and resistance to those solutions. So, of course you’re anxious!

Your anxiety might be caused by other stresses, such as the threat of deportation, hate crimes, or finances… No matter the cause, read on for tips to help build your resilience.

To deepen your resilience, Tamara suggests taking five steps.

1. Notice what is happening to you. How do you feel? What symptoms are you experiencing? Which feels strongest? 
2. Accept that what you feel is what you feel, what you need is what you need, and that circumstances are what they are, at least for now. That doesn’t mean you like what you’re experiencing. You’re just acknowledging the situation you’re in. That is the first step to changing your response. Mindfulness and meditation can be quite helpful here. 

The polyvagal chart by Ruby Jo Walker can help us understand our feelings. It represents the autonomic nervous system and our automatic response patterns to our environment. The autonomic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response. 

The Social Engagement Zone is where we’d like to be; when we feel calm, compassionate, and at peace, we have access to our whole mind and body. 

If something upsets us, we move into the Fight or Flight Zone. We’re stressed and more aware of threats to our safety and wellbeing. We do things we think will help us return to that sense of safety.

If our nervous system is overwhelmed by the dangers, we enter the Shutdown Zone. We feel helpless, depressed, numb, and trapped.

1. If we enter the Shutdown Zone, we must seek support and community. We are communal beings. We’re wired to connect with others. Leaning on others at this critical time enables us to overcome our challenges and settle back into the Social Engagement Zone. This learning can take various forms: talking to others about what you just read, meeting with people who have similar concerns and are working together to address them, or meeting with a close friend, family member, or therapist⁸ with whom you can confide.
2. Practice meeting your own needs. Develop a habit of doing what supports you. Get outside in nature, move your body, tune into joy and awe, and practice breathing with intention. Pursue your passions regularly with creativity and joy. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should fill your spirit. Practice is essential because you are rewiring your brain and moving into and widening the social engagement zone in your nervous system. 
3. Finally, rest and repeat. Consider what you might want to do differently the next time you practice. 

Some of you might have the time and the need to care for yourself full-time right now. Or perhaps you don’t need that much self-care, but earning a living and caring for your loved ones takes all of your time. That’s understandable and okay.

If you do have any time, please engage in advocacy and action, as purpose is a powerful motivator. Purpose means making time to engage with others in action, which is far more powerful than isolated acts; but only do this when you’ve returned to the Social Engagement Zone. As Joan Baez said, “Action is the antidote to despair.”

If you are an effective advocate, you could be threatened with prosecution or persecution by Trump and his allies. If that happens, get the help you need and do what supports you to stay in (or to return to) the Social Engagement Zone. Engagement can keep you there. We need you to be engaged in advocacy for the issues that we all care about! 

Sources

1. https://e360.yale.edu/features/trump-second-term-climate
2. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
3. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9z0lm48ngo 
4. https://phr.org/news/with-sanctions-on-icc-officials-trump-administration-erodes-human-rights-and-accountability-phr/
5. Navigating climate and election anxiety. Tamara Staton. https://community.citizensclimate.org/events/item/24/16550
6. Let it be: mindful acceptance down-regulates pain and negative emotion. Hedy Cober et al., Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 14, Issue 11, November 2019, Pages 1147–1158, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsz104
7. Polyvagal Theory Chart, Ruby Jo Walker, https://www.swtraumatraining.com/_files/ugd/0b3865_0c80e1ea2b664e929808b3823d596a65.pdf
8. https://www.climatepsychology.us/climate-therapists

Climate scientist Steve Ghan leads the Trial-Cities Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby